United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that Alex Ogunshakin, age 41, a Nigerian citizen, was sentenced on October 31, 2024, in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Senior United States District Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Ogunshakin to a total of 45 months’ imprisonment. “There is no parole in the federal system.” Upon completing his prison term, “Ogunshakin will begin a 3-year term of supervised release and is subject to removal from the United States.”
“From sometime no later than January 2015, continuing to September 2016, Alex Ogunshakin participated in a scheme to defraud U.S.-based businesses.”
As part of the operation, “Ogunshakin and other individuals participated in a business email compromise scheme in which co-conspirators used compromised email accounts to send spoofed emails to thousands of business employees who handled accounting, to include authorizing and sending wire transfers.”
“A spoofed email is one in which the email appears to be originating from a sender other than who is truly the sender.” Co-conspirators used spoofed addresses to impersonate Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) or other top executives and would instruct recipients to complete wire transfers. “The business employee, thinking the wire transfer request was legitimate, would comply with the wire transfer and send money to a location provided in wiring instructions.”
“Ogunshakin and other co-conspirators provided bank account information to the co-conspirators who sent the spoofed emails to the business executives.”
In February 2015 and May 2015, two Nebraska-based businesses were targeted by the scheme.” Investigators discovered that “over 70 U.S.-based businesses were victimized and the loss amount exceeded $6 million, with attempted losses exceeding $30 million.”
Alex Ogunshakin and the co-conspirators committed the offense from outside the United States, mostly from Nigeria.” At the request of U.S. authorities, “Nigerian authorities arrested Ogunshakin for the purpose of his extradition in October 2020, a court in Nigeria found him extraditable in July 2023, and Nigerian authorities extradited him to the United States in September 2023.”
“The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance in securing the arrest and extradition of Ogunshakin in coordination with the FBI’s Legal Attaché in Abuja, Nigeria’s Office of the Attorney General and Federal Ministry of Justice, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.”
Ogunshakin’s co-conspirator, Adewale Akinloye, was sentenced to 96 months’ imprisonment in February 2019. Co-conspirators Richard Uzuh, Felix Okpoh, and Nnamdi Benson all remain at large. Co-conspirator Abiola Kayode’s extradition proceedings are ongoing.”
“This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lecia E. Wright for the District of Nebraska.”
